1. Field of Art
The present invention relates generally to computer processors, and more specifically, to a processor to operate on compressed streams of digital media in accordance with network conditions.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, multimedia such as video and audio has been delivered using analog delivery mediums such as NTSC (National Television System Committee) signals, and has been stored using analog storage mediums such as video cassette recorders. The analog signals typically contain uncompressed frames of video. Thus, a significant part of the electronic components in a display device are dedicated to analog receiving hardware, and if the display device has a digital output, electronic components are needed to convert the analog signal to a digital signal. With the advent of digital delivery mediums, such as ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) signals, and of digital storage mediums and DVDs, multimedia can be delivered and stored using pure digital signals. Digital signals typically contain compressed frames of video.
Meanwhile, consumers and business have an increasing number of digital playback devices such as high-definition televisions, digital video recorders, MP3 players and the like. However, the digital playback devices are typically independent of each other. Furthermore, the digital playback devices are likely to use a digital format that is optimized for particular storage and playback capabilities. For example, a high-definition television can use a conventional high-definition signal, but a standard-definition television or a portable video player typically uses a digital signal with different characteristics. Differences in digital formats can include encoding, bit rate, resolution, and the like.
Due to differences in conventional playback devices, there are limits in the types of digital formats that can be input and output from the devices. In order to handle more digital formats, the complexity of related hardware increases exponentially. One reason for this is that the digital formats are typically decompressed in order to perform operations in the spatial domain to make use of legacy analog techniques which operate on decompressed video. Decompressed multimedia, especially video, requires bulky processing hardware to handle the high bandwidth for data transfers. Decompressed video also requires significant amounts of storage.
In addition, when streaming media to remote devices over a network, the processing device can be unaware of varying conditions encountered outside of the processing device. For example, network conditions are constantly changing, and the changes affect how the media stream is received (e.g., latency and dropped packets). Once received, a display device may have varying display capabilities. For example, the media stream may have a bitrate that is beyond what the display device is able to handle (e.g., high-definition signal sent to a mobile device).
Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods to process digital media streams while accounting for effects of network conditions.